Page 168 - BLENDED LEARNING

The ‘history feature’ which can show past versions of wiki pages and ‘push
notifications’ to students’ emails allowed participants to see who had created,
moved or deleted content. This encouraged responsible participation.

Timetabling
The face-to-face class ran on Wednesday evenings at 6.30 p.m. for two hours in term
time from September 2010 until the paper-based international exam in June 2011. It
provided 60 guided learning hours, was teacher controlled and included institutional
requirements (i.e. individual learning plans, register) so time was precious. In contrast,
from March 2011 the wiki could be used any time asynchronously, from any place and
at the learner’s own pace.

How the modes were blended
The face-to-face aspects of the course were compulsory as the students had
enrolled on a traditional classroom-based course which included individual, pair and
group work. I planned lesson content which included activities from the coursebook,
and listening tasks from CDs, responding to learner needs including exam practice.
In contrast, contributing to wiki was optional as it was experimental. It would be
possible to organise a fully online course or a stronger blend with more weight
given to online aspects but only if learners were aware from the start about what
the expectations and requirements were. I felt that it would be unethical to change
the primary mode of delivery part way through a course, which is why the wiki was
optional in this instance.

The wiki complemented the face-to-face class when we examined recent wiki activity
during the class. A different learner each week would log into the wiki which was
displayed on the interactive whiteboard for about 15 minutes. The class discussed
the week’s content and sometimes edited it collaboratively so that everyone had the
chance to participate.
Outside class time, learners’ talents were utilised on the wiki as they had freedom
to organise and produce content and develop the site. One learner created a ‘news
page’ where ideas, gossip and opinions were shared (see Figure 2).

164 | Using a wiki to enhance the learning experience on a business English course Using a wiki to enhance the learning experience on a business English course | 165